



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 


[SMITHSON 


UNITED STATES 0. 





















































































MINERAL RESOURCES 


OF 


NORTH CAROLINA 


BY 

V 

FRED’Iv A. GENTH, 


Consulting Chemist and. Geologist. 



Read before ihe Franklin Institute at the monthly meetings of Nov. and Dec., 187 


C *0* 

*y of Wash^* 


PHILADELPHIA: 






















ON THE MINERAL RESOURCES OF 
NORTH CAROLINA. 


BY 

F. A. GElsTH. 



[From the Journal of the Franklin Institute.] 


For a long time past the State of North Carolina has been noted for 
its great and varied mineral wealth, hence it became the favored 
field for speculations of every sort, some of these of the wildest char¬ 
acter. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that failure should 
have met most of those schemes, which contemplated mere stock oper¬ 
ations in place of a legitimate development of the mines. However, 
as an unfortunate consequence of those speculative undertakings, an 
impression has been cast in our northern cities to the effect that the 
mineral riches of that state were more imaginary than real. The 
fallacy and injustice of such a conclusion were fully demonstrated to 
me twenty years ago, during a residence of nearly two years in the 
State, and since that time my faith in the mining resources of North 
Carolina has been strengthened by frequent visits as an expert, during 
which I have examined most of the gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and 
iron mines of the central counties. In addition to those many op¬ 
portunities of acquiring positive evidence of the mineral wealth of that 
State, it was my good fortune to spend a great part of last summer in 
North Carolina in company with Prof. W. C. Kerr, the very able 
State Geologist, at whose request I visited the principal mineral lo¬ 
calities of the State for the purpose of working up the mineralogy for 
the geological report. My field for examination has been quite ex¬ 
tensive, embracing, more or less, about thirty-two Counties of the 
State. 




2 


As one of the results of the geological survey of North Carolina, it 
may be interesting here to state that it has already contributed to 
the development of several mining localities, which have invited the 
attention of northern capitalists ; other mining properties are in pro¬ 
cess of negotiation, and I have no doubt that,, when better known, 
many other mines, which at present are neglected, will command the 
attention they justly deserve, offering, as they do, inducements for 
safe and profitable investment. 

Although my labors in North Carolina in connection with the geo¬ 
logical survey were generally directed to the mineralogy of the State, 
I have nevertheless made numerous observations, and acquired many 
facts which may be interesting to the members of the Franklin In¬ 
stitute. I intend giving a brief account of the vast mineral resources 
of North Carolina, but ere I describe the occurrence of the different 
ores, it may not be amiss to sketch, in a concise way, the general out¬ 
line of the geology of that State, without, however, entering into a 
geological discussion with reference to the position and age of the 
various rocks, but simply confining myself to their petro-graphical 
determinations. 

Almost the whole State of North Carolina is made up of gneissoid 
or granitic rocks, alternating with strata of argillites, quartzites and 
talcose, chloritic and micaceous slates, all more recent rocks, result¬ 
ing from the destruction of the older. 

These are overlaid, in its eastern and south-eastern portion, for a 
distance of from ninety to one hundred miles from the coast by ter¬ 
tiary and cretaceous deposits, with numerous marl beds, of much local 
importance for the agricultural development of this portion of the 
State. Many of these beds contain small quantities of lignite and 
pyrite, but not in sufficient quantities to be of any commercial value. 

The older formations are arranged in nearly parallel bands or belts, 
which cross the State in a north-east to south-western direction. The 
tertiary and cretaceons formation rests immediately upon a belt of 
quartzites and slates bearing N. 25—30° E. with a southeasterly dip, 
and these are underlaid by granite and gneissoid strata, which border 
them on the west and form the most eastern granite belt, known as 
the Raleigh belt, which occupies the greater portions of Warren, 
Franklin and Wake Counties, with Raleigh as a centre ; and extends 
from there southwestwardly through Richmond County into South 
Carolina. It consists, to a large extent, of a granular granite, com¬ 
posed principally of orthoclase, greyish white granular quartz, and 




3 


very little mica, which is frequently biotite. In many places the 
granite is a real granulite ; in others it graduates into gneiss, and, 
here and there, into hornblendic strata. 

The Raleigh belt is overlaid by very extensive beds of slates, 
argillite, quartzite, etc., with a north-west dip, traversing Granville, 
Person, Orange, Alamance, Randolph, Moore, Montgomery, Stanley ? 
Anson, Union and the south-east part of Davidson, Cabarrus and 
Rowan Counties. 

To the west of these slates, which have been called taconie slates by 
Emmons, another band of the oldest rocks is again observed. It has 
been called the Greensboro’ and Salisbury granite belt, and occupies 
the principal portion of Caswell, Rockingham, Guilford, Forsythe, 
Davie, Davidson, Rowan, Iredell, Cabarrus, Mecklenburg and the 
eastern portion of Gaston, Lincoln and Catawba Counties. The gran¬ 
ites are often granulites, consisting only of orthoclase and quartz. In 
many places they became porphyritic, by the dissemination of large 
orthoclase crystals throughout the mass; again they change to gneiss 
and micaschist, and frequently, through a gradual admixture of horn¬ 
blende, they turn to syenite, hornblendic gneiss, hornblende-slates 
and even diorite. These hornblendic rocks are interlaminated with 
the granite and gneiss, and their gradual passage from one into the 
other are evidence of their cotemporary origin. As these hornblendic 
or dioritic rocks are less readily decomposed, they often form vein¬ 
like walls through the other rocks, so-called “ trap dykes,” and as the 
result of their partial disintegration, the surface is covered with 
rounded boulders. 

Accumulations of various iron ores, hematites and magnetites, form 
bands in this belt of gneissoid rocks. 

Another band of more recent slates, characterized by several im¬ 
portant beds of limestone and magnetic iron, passes from ‘King’s 
Mountain in a northeasterly direction through Gaston, Lincoln and 
Catawba Counties; here it is interrupted, but it occurs again in Davie, 
Forsythe, Yadkin and Stokes Counties. 

Proceeding in a westerly direction, we again come into the region 
of the oldest gneissoid and related rocks, very similar to those of the 
more eastern belts. These make up the bulk of the counties of Wilkes, 
Caldwell, Alexander, Catawba, Cleveland, Burke, McDowell, Ruther¬ 
ford, Polk and Henderson. 

A narrow band of slates borders this granite formation through 
Surry, Wilkes and the north-western corners of Caldwell, Burke, 


4 


McDowell, Henderson, and passes through Transylvania County into 
South Carolina. These slates appear to be connected with those of 
Stokes county. In this band of slates in several localities there oc¬ 
curs a peculiar quartzite, which, by a minute admixture of mica be¬ 
tween the rounded particles of quartz, forms the so-called “ flexible 
sandstone” or itacolumite. The principal localities in which it has 
been observed are Linville in Burke, Bending Rock Mountain in 
Wilkes, and Sauratown Mountains in Stokes Counties. In this nar¬ 
row belt of slates, several valuable limestones and iron ore beds have 
been discovered. 

The last belt of gneissoid or granitic rocks occurs west of these slates. 
It is largely made up of gneiss and hornblende slates, with a frequent 
admixture of garnets and crystals of cyanite. These rocks occur in 
Alleghany, Ashe and Watauga Counties ; they are interrupted, how¬ 
ever, in the southern portion of the latter and the northern part of 
Mitchell county by a narrow strip Of slates, which extends into Ten¬ 
nessee; but they then continue through Mitchell, Yancey, the greater 
portion of Madison, Buncombe, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Clay 
Counties, and the southeastern part of Cherokee County. In this belt 
large veins of granite occur, with massive accumulation of orthoclase 
and muscovite, associated with garnet, tourmaline, beryl, etc.; also 
lenticular masses of magnesian rocks with chrome ores, either chlo- 
ritic slates, etc., or granular chrysolite, which is the parent rock, by 
the alteration of which, in Pennsylvania, for instance, the serpentines 
have been produced. The extreme north western limits of the Coun¬ 
ties of Mitchell, Madison, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and the greater 
portion of Cherokee, are again occupied by slates, frequently in¬ 
closing beds of marble and granular dolomite interlaminated with 
beautiful talcslates or micaceous slates, containing large crystals of 
staurolite, garnet, etc. 

I have yet to mention as a very important formation the “ tri- 
assic,” which occupies a portion of the central counties of North Car¬ 
olina. Resting upon Emmon’s so-called taconic slates, narrow bands 
of shales and sandstones pass through Granville, the eastern edge of 
Orange and the western of Wake County, which in Chatham and 
Moore Counties widen and contain several valuable beds of coal; the 
formation continues through the south-east edge of Montgomery, 
thence through Anson County into South Carolina. The dip of these 
strata is south-east, and they form the south-eastern portion of the 
triassic formation, the central portion of which has been removed by 


5 


erosion, whilst the north-west portion, with a north-westerly dip and 
resting directly upon gneissoid and granitic rocks, appears again in 
Rockingham and Stokes Counties, where it shows sandstones, shales 
and numerous outcrops of coal beds. 

The gneissoid or granitic strata, as well as the slate formation, are 
frequently intersected by metallic deposits, either in veins and asso¬ 
ciated with quartz as a vein rock, or in ore beds, interlaminated with 
the strata, and forming a portion of the formation. 

I will now proceed to the consideration of the occurrence of the 
different metals and other valuable minerals : 

Gold. According to the earliest records the first piece of gold 
found in North Carolina was picked up in 1799, in a little branch at 
the Reid plantation, Cabarrus County. It weighed between three 
and four lbs., and was kept several years without its real character 
being suspected ; subsequently it was sold to a jeweller in Fayette¬ 
ville for $3.50. When its true character became known, search was 
made for more, and fourteen lumps, weighing in the aggregate 153 
lbs. troy, were obtained at the same locality. 

The gold veins and gravel deposits were afterwards discovered ; and 
for a considerable time gold operations were conducted in many lo¬ 
calities on a comparatively large scale. The discoveries of gold in 
California, where a far richer harvest was promised, led to the 
abandonment of many of those enterprises ; other causes have also 
influenced in the same direction, as, for example, the difficulties con¬ 
nected with deep vein mining, and the impossibility of extracting the 
gold by the imperfect and slow machinery then principally in use, 
the Chilean Mill and Arastra, etc., from heavy ores like pyrite, &c., 
which nature has not already decomposed. With the exception of 
minute quantities of telluride, in the very rare mineral nagyagite, at 
the King’s mountain mine, gold in North Carolina is always found in 
the metallic state. It is rarely quite pure, but generally alloyed with 
more or less silver. It occurs in crystals or crystalline masses, in 
thin plates or laminae, between the foliation of the slates or through 
associated minerals, such as quartz, pyrite, galenite, zinc-blende, etc., 
in such a fine state of division that it is generally invisible to the eye. 

It has been observed in four different geological positions: 

1st. It is met with in the mass of the gneissoid, granitic and horn- 
blendic rocks. 

2d. In quartz veins, often associated with pyrite, chalcopyrite, 
alenite, tetradymite and other minerals. 


6 


3d. In ore beds, cotemporary with the strata of rocks in which 
they are found, as in chloritic and talcose slates, argillites, quartz 
ites, etc. 

4th. Loosely in the soil and decomposed rocks, especially in 
gravel deposits, resulting from the destruction of the above first three 
formations. One of the most remarkable features peculiar to the 
rocks of the Southern States is their rapid disintegration. 

The debris from these rocks forming the soil or ferruginous clay, 
remains in situ. This disintegration is frequentty observed to a depth 
of over one hundred feet. Many of the railroad cuts show beauti¬ 
ful sections, and the study of these exhibits some highly interesting 
features, which I shall mention, as they are of the greatest importance 
to a full comprehension of the subject. 

In many places cuts may be seen which appear to have been made in a 
uniform mass of clay, which, in general, is ferruginous; on close ob¬ 
servation, however, it is easy to recognize that the apparently uni¬ 
form clay stratum belongs to two distinct formations. 

Immediately below the soil, which may be covered by vegetation, 
the ferruginous clay will be seen to contain, here and there, small 
fragments of quartz in angular pieces, with the edges more or less 
rubbed off, disconnected and not occurring in regular seams or veins ; 
the number of those quartz pebbles gradually increases at a greater 
depth, until they form a regular stratum of gravel. 

Some of those gravel beds are hardly perceptible ; others vary from 
a few inches to over thirty feet in thickness. 

When the great denudation took place, these fragments of quartz 
deposited themselves upon the then unaltered bed rock—the granite, 
gneiss, micaschist, slate, etc. ; but after this period the disintegration 
of the rock continued, and it is natural that the same kind of clay 
should have resulted from the same parent rock. 

Therefore we find, just below this gravel bed, ferruginous clay as 
above, but a closer investigation shows a great difference and espe¬ 
cially two striking facts: in the first place the stratification can be 
observed and followed to the underlying, undecomposed rocks, and 
secondly, the quartz, which is found in the same, occurs not in loose 
angular pieces, but in regular seams or yeins, in their original 
position. 

In some of the auriferous regions of North Carolina, such quartz 
veins are very numerous ; in others, they are less frequently met with. 

Most of them are exceedingly small, varying in width from the 


7 


thickness of a knife’s blade to a few inches, and often extending in 
depth but a few feet; some bulge out and form nests or pockets in the 
rocks, while others again are of enormous size, and are known to ex¬ 
ist as deep as they have been developed, which, in a few rare instances, 
is down to 200—300 feet. 

Many of these quartz veins are in reality beds, as they coincide in 
strike and dip with the stratification, whilst an equally great number 
run in every conceivable direction, and dip just as irregularly. 

The greater portion of these quartz veins contain no gold, or only 
such a small quantity that they could not be profitably worked, espe¬ 
cially the large veins of vitreous and milky quartz. 

Many of the small veins, principally those which contain granular 
or saccharoidal quartz, are rich in gold. 

Some of the large veins, especially those containing much cellular 
quartz, have frequently been found to be the most productive. This 
cellular quartz results from the decomposition of pyrite, which once 
occupied the now empty spaces; leaving them either occasionally 
quite free from iron, or more generally rusty and more or less filled 
with limonite. These, the so-called brown gold ores, are the best and 
most easily worked. At a greater depth of the veins, where the py¬ 
rite is not decomposed, the gold is so much mixed with heavy sulphur¬ 
ous ores that, with the present system of operations, it cannot be ex¬ 
tracted with profit; in many cases the gold disappears entirely. 

Most of these gold veins in North Carolina were abandoned, when 
the iron and copper pyrites increased too largely, and before they 
had been wrought deep enough to contain copper ores in paying 
quantities. 

The gold in these mines is not evenly distributed through the mass 
of the gangue ; the veins often contain entirely barren portions alter¬ 
nating with rich ones, the latter called shoots of ore or chimneys. 

Such shoots are in reality veins inside of a vein, and are fre¬ 
quently quite regular in their dip; the ores at the foot wall are gene¬ 
rally richer than those at the hanging wall. 

Many gold mines of this description have formerly been worked, 
and many of them undoubtedly are still of great value. 

In Guilford County there were the McCulloh and Fisher Hill 
mines; in Cabarrus County, the Phoenix, Vanderburgh, Cullen, Pio¬ 
neer Mills mines; in Mecklenburg County, the Capps, McGinn, 
Rudesill mines ; and numerous others. At present, almost every one 
of them are unworked; some explorations are carried on in Cabarrus 


8 


County, and in Mecklenburg County the McGinn and the Wilson 
mines are the only ones in operation, and that on a small scale only. 

At the McGinn mine they have a 5-stamp battery and amalgamated 
copper plates, also roasting ovens to decompose the sulphides; at the 
Wilson mine there is a 10-stamp battery with amalgamated copper 
plates, all after California patterns. 

Many of the quartz veins in the slates, differing in strike and dip 
from the inclosing slate, carry gold, especially those which contain 
cellular and cavernous quartz, associated with limonite, hematite, 
siderite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, etc. 

Some of them are highly promising, as, for instance, those of the 
Conrad Hill mine, in Davidson County ; but, unfortunately, not a 
single vein has been sufficiently developed in depth to form a just 
appreciation of its value. 

The gold deposits, which are cotemporary with the slates them¬ 
selves, are of far greater importance than the true gold veins. 

The talcose, chloritic, micaceous or arenaceous slates in which they 
occur, contain portions which are more or less charged with gold. 
The gold in these slate beds, like the slates themselves, is derived 
from the destruction of the older rocks, and has been deposited sim¬ 
ultaneously. 

The width of these auriferous beds varies from a few inches to from 
60 to 70 feet. 

The gold in them is often found without any admixture, and 
the auriferous strata shows no line of demarcation, and cannot be 
distinguished from the barren layers; but, generally, and subse¬ 
quently to its deposition, it has been acted upon by chemical agen¬ 
cies, dissolved and precipitated again, and has assumed a crystalline 
structure; it has accumulated in strings which sometimes form lenti¬ 
cular and more highly auriferous masses in the beds, and is associ¬ 
ated with crystalline quartz, pyrite, chalcopyrite, galenite, blende, 
mispickel, etc. 

These are often parallel with the slates, and so close together that 
they can be worked by the same operation, especially where the slates 
between are also auriferous. 

The Steele mine, in Montgomery County, and the Stewart mine, 
in Union County, are examples of this occurrence. 

These gold mines have proved to be the only reliable ones in depth ? 
and, if they are found to be rich enough for working, they can be 
depended upon for the future. 


9 


To this class belong the mines at Gold Hill, in Rowan County,, 
which have already produced not less than $2,000,000, and have 
reached a depth of 750 feet. Although this appears to be a very large 
production, I do not hesitate to say that perhaps four-fifths of all the 
gold in the ore, which is a talco-micaceous or chloritic slate, inter¬ 
mixed with pyrite, magnetite, and a little quartz, has been lost in the 
tailings, on account of the very imperfect process used for the ex¬ 
traction of the same. 

The King’s Mountain mine, of Gaston County, also belongs to this 
class. The gold is, to a great extent, contained in a quartzose lime¬ 
stone, and is associated with very small quantities of pyrite, gale- 
nite, chalcopyrite, but also with the very rare tellurides of lead, alta- 
ite, and with nagyagite, a telluride of gold and lead. 

In some places this ore bed is over thirty feet in thickness, and has 
been worked to a depth of 200 feet, but longitudinally only to a very 
small extent, not over 250 feet. 

This mine is also said to have produced over $1,000,000. The 
machinery used for the reduction of the ores are a 20-stamp battery 
with amalgamated copper plates, etc. 

There are at present no other mines belonging to this class in opera¬ 
tion, but there is no doubt that Montgomery, Union, Stanley, Rowan, 
Davidson, Randolph, Gaston and Cherokee Counties have many locali¬ 
ties, where profitable and successful mining operations might be 
carried on. 

In gold mining operations, the deposits which result from the disin¬ 
tegration of the rocks, and subsequent denudation, are undoubtedly 
of the greatest importance; there the gold which was contained in 
the rocks and in the small auriferous veins (which have been broken 
up into fragments) has been concentrated by nature, and in many 
places has been deposited, with the remnants of the veins, in the 
gravel beds, which I have already mentioned. 

Those gravel beds occur to a greater or less extent throughout the 
whole gold region ; the oldest gneissoid rocks as well as the slate 
formation contain them. 

The quartz in general is not water-worn, only the sharp edges are 
rounded. Many pieces still present the shape and thickness of the 
veins whence they came. 

The most extensive gravel deposits exist in the South Mountains, 
on the headwaters of the first and second Broad River, Muddy Creek 
and Silver Creek, in the Counties of Rutherford, McDowell, Burke, 


10 


Caldwell, also in Polk, and Cleveland; embracing an area of over 
200 square miles. 

They appear to cover the greater part of the land, rise often to a 
considerable height on the slope of the hills, but are naturally more 
concentrated in the bottoms and flat lands. The gravel beds in this 
region vary in thickness from a few inches to thirty feet, and are cov¬ 
ered with soil and clay, which is also more or less auriferous, although 
much poorer than the gravel beds below r . 

These deposits have been worked since about 1830, and before gold 
was known in California many thousands of hands were at work dig¬ 
ging and washing in a rude way, yet many millions of dollars were 
produced without the help of any complicated machinery, and with¬ 
out the knowledge of a proper use of water. 

Since that time very little has been done; in some instances the 
old gravel was worked over again, and has made fair returns to the 
adventurers. 

Very large tracts of land, containing extensive and valuable depo¬ 
sits, have never been touched, and, by the introduction of the Cali¬ 
fornian hydraulic system of operations, a safe and very profitable 
business could be carried on. 

The gold is rarely found in nuggets; generally as fine dust and in 
small grains. Its fineness averages about 825 thousands. It is asso¬ 
ciated with numerous interesting minerals, such as platinum, diamond, 
zircon, xenotime, monazite, and many others. 

Experiments with vein-mining in this region have not proved suc¬ 
cessful ; the rich veins are too narrow in width, and of too limited 
extent in depth, and the large veins do not contain enough gold to be 
advantageously worked. 

A small region of valuable gravel beds exists in the gneissoid rock 
and micaceous slate of Franklin and Nash Counties, in the eastern 
part of the State. It has been most extensively prospected at the 
Portis mine, where it is very rich, and has been worked since about 
50 years, having produced, it is said, over $1,000,000. 

The productive gravel is here the result of the disintegration of 
numerous small granular or sugary quartz veins, and very fine speci¬ 
mens of gold in such quartz are frequently met with. 

The fineness of the Portis mine gold was generally about 985 thou¬ 
sands. 

There are enormous gravel piles at the mine—the remnants of for¬ 
mer operations. 


11 


Some very important but expensive experiments have been made 
at this mine. 

Machinery was here erected for crushing and amalgamating the 
gravel, which, being part of gold veins, was thought could be profit¬ 
ably worked for gold. 

The result was precisely what my own examination of the place 
convinced me it should have been —a failure; because, whilst the 
gravel may contain some very rich specimens, the whole bulk is too 
poor to be worked with profit. This is accounted for from the fact, 
which I have already intimated, that the gold in the gravel deposits, 
principally, is the loose gold, which had existed in the rocks and be¬ 
tween their laminae, or that from the small quartz veins, whilst the 
large veins are mostly barren. In a region which contains many 
small veins, the gravel deposits are generally valuable, even if the 
bulk of the beds has been made up from the destruction of large 
ones. 

There are several highly important gravel deposits in Montgomery 
County, in the slate formation, some of which have produced a large 
amount of gold; the gold is mostly crystalline, in flat pieces, often 
covered with octahedral crystals, and in large nuggets; very little 
fine-grained gold has been found. 

The best known deposit, which has produced large returns, but 
which is still, so to say, barely touched, is the so-called Christian 
mine. 

The Swift Creek mine, about seven miles distant, produces gold of 
similar appearance. 

West of the Blue Ridge several gravel deposits have been worked, 
to a greater or lesser extent, in Cherokee and Jackson Counties, also 
at Howard’s Creek, in Watauga, and on the French Broad and New 
Rivers. 

Throughout the whole gold region, every stream, branch and rivulet 
contains gold; and, as the washing of these is the most convenient 
way to obtain the precious metal on a small scale, there is hardly one 
which is not more or less worked, many of them up to their source. 

Platinum. Only a few grains have been found in North Carolina, 
associated with gold in Rutherford and Burke Counties; and there is 
no prospect that it ever will be found in large quantities. 

Silver , Lead , Zinc. I shall consider those three metals under one 
head* as they are always associated. 


12 


Silver is a rare metal in North Carolina. With the exception of 
the silver alloyed with gold, varying from 1 or 2 to about 20 per ct. r 
in the gold from veins and gravel deposits of the granitic and gneis- 
soid rocks, very little silver has been found in the veins of these 
strata. 

The only localities which came under my notice were at the Baker 
mine, in Caldwell, and at Scott’s Hill, in Burke County. There it 
occurs but rarely, in veins of auriferous quartz. At the latter place 
it is only observed after burning the ore, and a little fragment which 
I have seen makes me feel confident that it is present as cerargyrite, 
or chloride of silver. 

Small quantities of argentiferous galenite and pyromorphite are 
associated with it. 

Native silver has been observed with chalcocite or copper glauce at 
Gap Creek mine, in Wilkes County, and at the Asbury vein in Gas¬ 
ton County. 

The only real silver mines of North Carolina are ore beds of zinc 
blende, mixed with galenite, in the argillaceous and talcose slates- 
The type of these is the old Washington mine, now Silver Hill, in 
\ Davidson County, which was discovered in 1838. Near the surface 
it formed a bed of carbonate of lead, having in many places films and 
plates of metallic silver disseminated through the mass of the ore. 
These ores were easily reduced, and produced handsome returns to- 
the owners. This was, however, but of short duration. The unde¬ 
composed ores, which were a very fine-grained mixture of brown zinc- 
blende and argentiferous galenite, were soon reached, and presented 
great difficulties in the extraction of the precious metals. 

When I was at the mine, about 22 }^ears ago, an analysis of an 
average sample of between 2000 — 3000 tons of ore gave me about 
45 per ct. of zinc, 21 per ct. of lead, about 8 ounces of silver per 
ton, with minute quantities of copper and gold. If the Philadelphia 
owners had abided by my advice, viz., to work the ores for zinc, and 
extract silver, copper and lead from the residues, they would prob¬ 
ably still be in possession of this valuable mine. 

The ore bed is large, and in one place has had a thickness of about 
60 feet. 

Occasionally it contains very rich spots, with native silver in lumps 
and filiform masses, or disseminated through the ore with argentite 
or highly argentiferous galenite; and besides these minerals this mine 


13 


lias furnished the most magnificent cabinet specimens of cerussite, 
pyromorphite, etc. 

The mine is now 650 feet deep, and the ore is greatly mixed with 
slate. The purer masses are kept separate ; the slaty ore is crushed and 
separated by buddies, etc., and the huddled ore is roasted and shipped 
to New York for the manufacture of the so-called Bartletts’ white 
lead. The production of this mine is now about 400 — 500 tons per 
month. 

Very similar ore is found about six miles north-east of Silver Hill. 
The vein has not been developed, and the work done at Silver Valley 
has not been productive. 

The Hoover mine, about six miles from Silver Hill, contains gale- 
nite, in a more coarsely crystalline variety, in a calcareous veinstone, 
and the Boss mine, two miles distant, has furnished handsome cabinet 
specimens of galenite in quartz. 

The McMakin mine, about If mile south-east from Gold Hill, is a 
very interesting one; the principal vein is a large vein of zinc-blende 
in talcose and argillaceous slates ; it contains native silver, argentite, 
argentiferous galenite, and highly argentiferous tetrahedrite. The 
latter contains, according to my analysis, 10*53 per ct. of silver, and 
an average sample of ore of a o' vein, at 80 feet depth, which was sent 
to me about 11 years ago, yielded 246 ounces of silver per ton, worth 
about $334. The mine is not worked, but looks favorable enough to 
deserve fresh attention. 

The Troutman mine, also in the neighborhood of Gold Hill, and one 
mile south-east of it, has been opened as a gold mine. It consisted 
of porous quartz, and yielded near the surface very rich ores, worth 
$50 per bushel; at the depth of 100 feet, where the sulphides are 
undecomposed, the ores yielded only $1, and contained a string of ash 
grey zinc-blende with pyrite, from 2 to 6 inches in width, which had 
increased to 18 inches when abandoned at a depth of 160 feet. These 
ores are well worthy of a fuller investigation, as they may be rich in 
gold. 

I have already mentioned, when speaking of gold, the beds and 
veins of gold ore in Union and Montgomery Counties, as being 
frequently associated with zinc-blende. The string veins of the 
Steele mine principally consist of these and galenite. 

At the Long (or Monroe) mine, in Union County, the quartz veins 
in the slates are richly charged with argentiferous galenite; but the 


14 


veins have not been sufficiently explored to know whether it will 
increase in depth. 

At the Lemmond (Marion) mine, a very remarkable vein or bed has 
been worked; it is irregular in size, sometimes widening out from a 
few inches to six feet. It consists of quartz, richly charged with 
brown zinc-blende and galenite, with small quantities of arsenopy- 
rite, chalcopyrite, often intermixed with grains of electrum, a highly 
argentiferous variety of gold. Both the galenite and the zinc-blende 
are very rich. I have examined a pure .specimen of galenite which 
did not show any admixture of free gold to the eye, but which 
yielded at the rate of nearly 30 oz. of gold and 86J oz. of silver to 
the ton ; and pure brown zinc-blende gave me about 32 oz. of silver 
and gold, nearly half of which was gold. This vein appears to have 
a considerable longitudinal extension, and passes into the Steward 
mine property, formerly owned in this city. 

At the latter mine, and at various other localities in this region,, 
similar ores have been found, but the war has stopped all operations, 
and it will require capital and skill to develop this highly important 
mining district. 

Galenite and zinc blende occur at several other mines, associated 
with gold ores, as at the Kings mountain, the Cansler and Shuford, 
and the Long Creek mines in Gaston county, etc. At Cedar Cove, 
McDowell county, in the limestones of the so-called taconic slates, at 
the Dobson mine, there is found an accumulation of yellow and yellow¬ 
ish brown zinc-blende mixed with lime. I have not, however, seen 
anything from there which looks encouraging. 

Galenite and zinc-blende is associated with the gold ores at Mur¬ 
phy, Cherokee county. Highly argentiferous galenite occurs at 
several localities on Beech mountain, Watauga; argentiferous and 
auriferous galenite have been discovered at Flint Knob in Wilkes 
County, and I have seen specimens of it from Marshall, Madison 
County, Clayton, Johnson County, and Elkin Creek, Surry County, 
and also in several of the copper mines throughout the State, but I 
have no knowledge of any deposit of sufficient magnitude to be 
worked advantageously. 

Tin .—No tin ore bus been found in North Carolina as yet. Traces 
of this metal have been found in the tungstates of Cabarrus County, 
and in a micaceous slate in Gaston County, associated with garnet 
and columnar topaz (pycnite). 


15 


Copper .—Copper ores have been found in many localities through¬ 
out the State, in the veins of the old gneissoid rocks, as well as in the 
more recent slates, and even in the triassie formation. 

The principal ore is chalcopyrite or copper pyrites ; and there is 
every reason to believe that many of the mines require only a fuller 
development to enable them to furnish large quantities of valuable 
ores. 

I have already mentioned that many of the gold veins are associated 
with pyritic ores, and in fact almost all the North Carolina copper 
mines in the central Counties have first been worked for gold, and 
there are hardly any mines in Guilford, Cabarrus and Mecklenburg 
Counties occurring in the gneissoid and syenitic rocks, which do not 
show strong indications of copper ores. 

When mining operations receive a new impetus, it is to be hoped 
that this very important fact will be borne in mind, and that no mine 
should be started without sufficient means to develop it at once to 
such a depth that a workable body of copper ores may be reached. 

The general character of these mines is that about at water level, the 
so-called brown gold ores are replaced by quartz richly charged with 
iron pyrites more or less mixed with copper pyrites, the latter in¬ 
creasing as the mine deepens, and in many places becoming the only, 
or the predominating ore, and forming a regular copper vein. 

The ores either became poor in gold or the latter could not be ex¬ 
tracted by the ordinary process, then chiefly in use in North Caro¬ 
lina—Chilean mills and arastra—therefore many valuable mines were 
abandoned, mostly before a larger and paying quantity of copper ores 
had been reached. 

In this formation there is not at present a single copper mine in 
operation, although many look favorable for further development. 

The principal mines which promised to change into copper mines 
are: in Guilford County, the Fisher Hill, the North Carolina, the 
McCulloh, Lindsay, Gardner Hill, Twin Mines, etc. ; in Cabarrus 
County, the Ludowick, Boger, Hill, Phoenix, Orchard, Vanderburg, 
Pioneer Mills, etc., and in Mecklenburg the McGinn, Hopewell, 
Rudesill, Cathay Mines, etc. 

The cupreous minerals observed in these mines are, near the sur¬ 
face, small quantities of native copper and cuprite, the latter some¬ 
times- in beautiful needles, the so-called chalcotrichite, malachite, 
rarely azurite, chrysocolla and pseudo-malachite, and in some of the 
mines chalcocite and barnhardtite ; all resulting from the decomposi- 


16 


tion of chalcopyrite or copper pyrites, which forms the principal ore. 
Siderite or carbonate of iron often forms an important gangue rock. 

A very important copper region extends through many of the 
western counties of North Carolina, which is best developed in Jack- 
son, Watauga, Ashe, Wilkes and Alleghany Counties. The ores oc¬ 
cur in hornblendic slates and gneissoid rocks. 

In Jackson County, at the Savannah, the Cullowhee, the Wolf 
Creek Mines .and others, large quantities of chalcopyrite or yellow 
copper pyrites have been obtained ; at Elk Knob, in Ashe County, 
the ore consists of chalcopyrite with pyrrhotite, in a gangue rock 
consisting of a dark colored micaceous quartzite. The Ore Knob in 
the same County has furnished chalcocite or copper glauce. 

At Gap Creek Mine, in Wilkes County, the ore consists of quartz 
with bornite or variegated copper ore and chalcopyrite. The ore 
sometimes contains silver and gold. 

The Peach Bottom Mine in Alleghany County has been worked to 
a depth of 150 feet, and has produced a considerable quantity of ore ; 
galenite occurs in a portion of the vein. 

This whole mining region is well worthy the attention of capitalists, 
and when better facilities for transportation are offered, I have no 
doubt that it will be more fully and profitably developed. 

The only two copper mines in North Carolina, which are worked 
at present to a limited extent, are in the so-called taconic slates. 

The Clegg Mine in Chatham County is a large quartz vein in argil¬ 
laceous slates. It is developed to a depth of 200 feet and has fur¬ 
nished large bunches of valuable ore. The ore is chiefly chalcopyrite, 
but other cuprose minerals have been found, among which azurite in 
small but beautiful crystals. The mine is in excellent order, and the 
machinery is of the best quality and very efficient. I understand that 
arrangements have been made to smelt the ores on the spot. Copper 
ores under similar circumstances are found at other places in Chat¬ 
ham, also in Person County. 

The other mine is the so-called Emmons or Davidson copper mine, 
about six miles from Lexington. It has also been opened as a gold 
mine, but the ore was poor, containing not over thirty-seven cents per 
bushel, with a large admixture of iron and copper pyrites, occurring 
in a dark bluish green chloritic slate. It has been abandoned there¬ 
fore as a gold mine and is worked only for copper. I learned a few 
days ago that works for the extraction of the ore by the humid way 
are in contemplation. 


17 


Almost identical in appearance, but richer in gold, is the so-called 
Barnhardt vein of Gold Hill. In the neighborhood of Gold Hill are 
several localities which have yielded rich copper ores ; especially the 
Union copper mine in Cabarrus, about one mile from Gold Hill; it 
was worked more than any other in the neighborhood, and has fur¬ 
nished crystallized copper and cuprite, and a mixture of chalcocite 
and chalcopyrite and other ores. 

Other mines in the neighborhood of Gold Hill, also several in Ran¬ 
dolph and Davidson Counties, contain more or less copper; for instance, 
the Conrad Hill, show strong indications of copper. 

Arsenic , Antimony and Bismuth ,—Only a few ores of arsenic and 
antimony have been noticed in North Carolina. Amongst these is 
very rare native antimony, of which a small piece was submitted to 
my examination by Dr. Hunter, of Cottage Home, Lincoln County. 
It has been found in a small vein in Burke County. An examina¬ 
tion proved it to be quite pure. 

Both arsenic and antimony are found in combination with other 
metals : arsenic at a few localities in Union and Gaston Counties, in 
small quantities, as arsenopyrite or mispickel, associated with gold 
ores; and both arsenic and antimony in the highly argentiferous 
tetrahedrite of the McMakin, and the tetrahedrite of the Ludowick 
mines in Cabarrus County. 

Bismuth has been observed as bismuthinite in minute particles as¬ 
sociated with the gold and copper ores of the Barnhardt vein at Gold 
Hill, and by Dr. Asbury as bismuthite with gold ores at the Asbury 
mine in Gaston County ; also as bismite, or teroxide of bismuth, in the 
same mine, and in combination with copper, lead and sulphur at Col. 
White’s mine in Cabarrus County, probably as aikinite. The most 
interesting ores are the telluride of bismuth (tetradymite) and the 
tellurate of bismuth (montanite)—both found associated with gold ores 
in numerous localities—in Davidson, Cabarrus, Gaston, McDowell and 
Burke Counties. The bismuthic gold mentioned by Shepard as coming 
from Rutherford, is probably an artificial product resulting from the 
simultaneous amalgamation of gold and tetradymite. 

Cobalt and Nickel .—Small quantities of these two metals have 
been observed in the manganese gossans of several mines in Gaston 
County, but thus far no regular workable deposit has been found. 


18 


Manganese .—The regular manganese deposits are as yet known in 
North Carolina; small quantities of pyrolusite, psilomelane and wad 
have been observed associated with iron, gold and silver ores, in sev¬ 
eral localities in the State. Many of the iron ores contain a small 
per centage of manganese. 

The manganese garnet may become of considerable importance in 
the iron industry; it occurs in several large veins or beds. At Buck- 
horn it is associated with the magnetic iron, and serves as a valuable 
flux, it is also found near Danbury in Stokes county, in Rowan and 
Rutherford counties. 

Chrome .—Minute quantities are found in the magnetic iron belt 
passing through Guilford and Rockingham Counties. Deposits of 
considerable magnitude exist in the chrysolite beds of Jackson, 
Mitchell, Yancey and Watauga Counties. 

None of them are worked at present. 

4 

Iron .—Although the mineral wealth of North Carolina is affirmed 
beyond a doubt by its numerous mines and deposits of gold, copper, 
silver and other metals, still its greatest resources consist in its vast 
iron ore beds, distributed throughout the entire State; and when 
these are properly developed ; their importance will by far exceed any 
other mining interest. 

It may be safely predicted that, at an early day, North Carolina 
will stand foremost as an «Vow-producing State ; not only because the 
various varieties of iron ore exist in inexhaustible quantities, but also 
because they are of very superior quality, and offer all those requi¬ 
sites to making the better and more desirable grades of iron and 
steel. 

The principal ores are: the pure magnetic iron, the titaniferous 
and chromiferous magnetic iron, menaccanite or titaniferous iron, 
hematite or specular iron, limonite or brown hematite, and carbonate 
of iron. These ores, especially the magnetites and hematites, being 
in reality only a more ferriferous portion of the stratification form 
strings of large lenticular beds in the rocks, here and there inter¬ 
rupted but extending for many miles, and in some instances stretch¬ 
ing across the entire State. 

The outcrops of those ore beds being so very numerous, I cannot 
do more than indicate the various ranges and the localities where the 
ores are best developed. 


19 


But as there are also many places from which I have seen very 
line ores, which require fuller investigation as to quantities, I will 
mention the locality, in the hope that this may lead to important dis¬ 
coveries. For the sake of convenience, I will commence with the most 
eastern locality, and take up the different nearly parallel beds in 
succession, up to the Tennessee line. 

One mile east of Gaston, near the Roanoke River, there occurs a 
granular variety of hematite, more or less mixed with red and yellow 
ochre. The ore is apparently of very fine quality, but nothing is 
known as to whether it exists in quantities or not; if found in abund¬ 
ance, its location would make it valuable. 

A large deposit of brown hematite occurs in the slate formation 
connected with quartzites, four miles west of Smithfield, Johnson 
County, and a bluff of limonite is exposed at Whitacker’s, seven or 
eight miles south-west of Raleigh, in argillaceous and chloritic slates. 

The various iron ore deposits of Chatham and Moore Counties are 
of much greater importance. 

At Buekhorn, on the Cape Fear R^ver, a large bed of granular 
magnetite has been developed, from which, if I am correctly informed, 
about 0000 tons of very superior iron have been produced. The bed 
is between 20 and 30 feet thick, and lies almost horizontally between 
micaschist. This magnetite is associated and largely intermixed with 
manganesian garnet, which serves as a flux, and renders it very easy to 
smelt. The iron was used during the war for car-wheels, and was of such 
excellent quality that one of the wheels, coming accidentally into the 
possession of a firm in Wilmington, Del., induced them to purchase 
the property, with a view to establish similar works in North Carolina. 
The beds dip slightly to the south-east, and appear to extend in this 
direction, and also to the south side of Cape Fear River. 

A number of beds of hematite or specular iron make their appear¬ 
ance in Chatham County, in the argillaceo-talcose slates; the ores are 
the compact and granular hematite, of reddish, greyish and iron-black 
color, sometimes laminated, foliated and micaceous. 

In Moore County, 12 miles east of Carthage, near Governor’s 
Creek, there occurs a pure massive kidney-shaped hematite, without 
admixture, probably the south-west continuation of one of the Chat¬ 
ham ore beds. 

On Ore Hill, in Chatham County, not only red hematites are found, 
but also large beds of brown hematite or limonite. This hill is be¬ 
tween 200 and 300 feet high, and perhaps two or more large veins 


20 


of about 10 to 15 feet in thickness, intersect the hill in an E. and 
W. direction. 

The limonites are of fine quality, but their appearance and geologi¬ 
cal position would indicate that they are merely “gossans,” or decom¬ 
posed pyritous ores, and the probability is that at a greater depth the 
unaltered sulphides will be found. Since my return from North Caro¬ 
lina, the Ore Hill has been sold for $150,000, and there is a prospect 
that the old furnace on the place will soon be rebuilt and be put into 
blast. 

The Evans ore bed is from six to eight feet wide, and has been 
traced for nearly one mile; it is about four or five miles from the 
Gulf, and consists of red hematite, of fine quality. Kelley’s ore bed 
and several others show the same character. 

The ores which I have seen are excellent, but none of them are 
worked. 

Beds of granular magnetic iron, of fine quality, have also been 
found not far distant, but none of them are developed. One, for in¬ 
stance, is about 2 — 3 miles north of Evans ore bed. 

I cannot leave Chatham County without mentioning the peculiar 
ores which, many years ago, have been much speculated upon as being 
of immense value, I mean the so-called Black Band ores interstra- 
tified with the coal. There are three seams of this black band be¬ 
tween the coal beds. One of these seams is six feet in thickness, 
and consists of argillaceous carbonate of iron in balls and layers. 

Unfortunately, only a very small quantity of this ball ore could be 
selected which would be pure enough for the manufacture of iron. 
The great mass contains such an abundance of bones and teeth of 
saurians and fishes, that the amount of phosphoric acid in the same 
renders it absolutely worthless as an iron ore ; the quantity of phos¬ 
phoric acid is so great, that it has been proposed to apply it to the soil 
as a manure. 

A band af red hematite, probably the continuation of one of the 
Chatham County beds, passes through Orange County. It is quite 
prominent on a hill about 1J mile north-west of Chapel Hill. The 
surface is covered with ore, some of it almost pure sesquioxide of 
iron. Like Pilot Knob, in Missouri, it forms a series of quartzose 
bands, frequently with bands of pure ore alternating with quartz more 
or less mixed with ore. 

North-east from it, in the same County, at Red Mountain, extensive 
beds of this ore have been discovered. 


21 


In Montgomery, Randolph and Alamance Counties, several iron 
ore beds have been found, which at a future day may become of 
importance. 

Six or seven miles south-west of Troy, a band of hematite lies be¬ 
tween bands of auriferous slates, bordered on one side by quartzite, 
on the other by slaty pyrophillite. It forms a mass of about 50' 
wide, which has been traced for quarter of a mile. The bed is trav¬ 
ersed by massive hornblende. 

About four miles north of Troy a series of magnetic iron ore beds 
occur in the neighborhood of Carter’s Gold Mines. The ore is fre¬ 
quently crystallized, friable, and is intermixed with talc and quartz. 
The continuation of some of these ore beds pass through Randolph 
and Alamance Counties, where they yield ores of most excellent qual¬ 
ity, as, for instance, three or four miles south-west of Franklinville, 
where an abundance of fine magnetite is found on the surface in the 
immediate proximity of a vein, and at La Grange; at the latter place 
there also exist large deposits of bog iron ore. 

Some of the most important developments have been made within 
the last two years by the North Carolina Centre Iron and Manufac¬ 
turing Company, of this city, not only in the great titaniferous iron 
belt which passes principally through Guilford and Rockingham 
Counties, and extends through the edges of Forsythe and Davidson 
Counties, but also in numerous outcrops forming parallel ranges with 
this formation. 

I have already mentioned the accumulation of iron ore in the gneis- 
soid rocks of the Greensboro’ Belt. 

The ore forms one or more strata between the rocks, and their ex¬ 
tent has been proved for about 80 miles. Near the north-eastern 
extension the ore beds present a remarkable character, as proved by 
Prof. J. P. Lesley. He has shown the beds to be outcrops of the 
same synclinal basin, the so-called Tuscarora range being the south¬ 
east outcrop, with a north-west dip, while the so-called Shaw range is 
the north-west outcrop, with a south-east dip. The ore is a granular 
magnetite, more or less mixed with a micacceous mineral, also with 
hematite or menaccanite, and in some places it is associated with gran¬ 
ular corundum or emery. 

The average yield of the ore is 55 per ct. of iron; it contains, as 
I have already mentioned, small quantities of chrome, cobalt and 
manganese, and on an average about 18 per ct. of titanic acid, equal 
to 8 per ct. of titanium. 


22 


This titanic acid is not chemically combined with all the ore; in 
some of the varieties I have succeeded in separating, by the magnet, 
ore which was almost free from it, leaving the not magnetic menacca- 
nite behind. 

During the war, it was worked in bloomeries on a small scale, 
about two miles from Friendship, Guilford County, on a place which 
is now called Tuscarora, and has produced a quality of iron which 
was very remarkable for its toughness, its great strength and adapta¬ 
tion for the manufacture of steel. 

Almost in range with these ore beds, magnetites as well as titanif- 
erous iron ores have been found at several places in Mecklenburg 
County: the first, eight or nine miles from Charlotte, of Steel Creek 
Church; also, about seven miles from the same town, on the York 
road; and the titaniferous ore near the old Harris mine, 12 miles 
south-east of Charlotte. It cannot at present be ascertained whether 
these ores are connected with those of Guilford County. 

Before I proceed with the consideration of the numerous iron ore 
beds of the slates of the Kings’ Mountain group, I will mention that 
north-west of the titaniferous iron ore ranges of Rockingham, Guil¬ 
ford, etc., Counties, at least three ranges have lately been found be¬ 
tween it and the Dan River, called the Johnny Watson. Love and 
McQuillan ranges. No developments have been made as yet, but the 
analyses of some of the ores show them to be free from titanic acid, 
and yielding about 50 per ct. of iron. 

A very extensive and important belt of iron ores, which has fur¬ 
nished the greater portion of the iron used in the State, occurs in 
the slates of the King’s Mountain group. It consists of a series of 
parallel magnetite ore beds extending, with frequent interruptions, 
from the neighborhood of Danbury in Stokes County, across the en¬ 
tire State into South Carolina. 

The character of this series of magnetite beds is so uniform that it 
would be tedious to enumerate all the important beds; I will therefore 
point out only a few of the most characteristic ones. 

The ores are granular magnetites without titanic acid , at times 
quite pure, but generally in part altered into hematite, and more or 
less intermixed with fine grained actinolite, tremolite, talc or chlorite 
and frequently associated with small quantities of epidote. The 
average of the ore is above 60 per cent. 

A very fine bed of this granular magnetite associated with actino- 


lite is the Rogers ore bank, near Danbury in Stokes County, which 
has been worked for a long time, and the ore smelted at the furnace 
on the Dan river. 

There are several parallel ore beds ; the upper is of the finest 
quality and most valuable. It is between seven and twenty feet in 
width, yielding on an average about 60 per cent, of iron. The ore 
is almost free from phosphorus and sulphur. Some of the smaller 
beds at their outcrop are rather sulphurous. Similar very fine beds 
occur in Surry County ; the ores are schistose granular magnetites, 
with talcose, micaceous and quartzose admixtures. 

At Tom’s Creek this ore has been worked since 1795, and bloom- 
eries are now in operation. Other ore beds, which also have been 
extensively worked, are the Williams’ Ore Bed and the Hyatt’s 
Mine. 

The southern continuation of the ore beds of Stokes and Surry are 
developed again in Forsythe and Yadkin Counties. The character of 
the granular magnetites remains the same, and is an association of 
talc or actinolite. They have been extensively worked at Hobson’s 
in Yadkin County, near the east bend of tho Yadkin River and other 
places. 

Probably the beds in Davie County, on the South Yadkin River, are 
the same, and pass through Iredell County near Statesville into Ca¬ 
tawba and Lincoln Counties, where they have again been extensively 
worked for a long time in blast furnaces, as well as in bloomeries, 
producing iron of great strength and toughness. 

In Gaston County the same beds of granular magnetite, to a great 
extent altered into hematite, with a fine grained actinolite slate, have 
been worked on the High Shoal property on the Little Catawba River, 
at Ellison’s and Carson’s Ore Banks. 

Not only magnetites furnish the material for the production of iron, 
but also very fine limonites, fibrous, cavernous and partly result¬ 
ing from the alteration of carbonate of iron, often yet showing its 
crystalline structure. They occur in large veins or beds in the 
slates; as they result mostly from the oxidation of pyritous ores, it 
may be expected that at a greater depth this will replace them en¬ 
tirely. The Orman and Mine Mountain and Ferguson Ore Banks, 
all on the High Shoal property, have been extensively worked. It 
is to be regretted that litigations have thus far prevented Admiral 
Wilkes from commencing operations at this highly valuable property, 
with its magnificent water power and other facilities for conducting 


24 


a large manufacturing business. Near the top of Crowder’s Moun¬ 
tain a vein of specular iron has been found. In the vicinity of King’s 
Mountain the magnetic ores have been worked since the latter part 
of the eighteenth century. One of the ore beds is about forty feet 
thick. Besides the magnetites there are also limonites of good qual¬ 
ity. A very striking feature of this very important and extensive 
belt of magnetites is its proximity to a parallel band of limestone, 
which accompanies the iron ore at almost every locality from Dan¬ 
bury down to King’s Mountain. 

Entering again the gneissoid rocks, we meet near Newton in Ca¬ 
tawba County a very valuable bed of granular magnetic iron in syenite, 
resembling the ore from Cranberry in Mitchell County. 

Magnetites as well as hematites are found in Wilkes and Caldwell 
Counties, some of which were formerly manufactured into iron. One 
very promising outcrop of large beds of fine granular titaniferous 
magnetite, for instance, has been observed near the Yadkin River, one 
mile west of Patterson, and another two miles north of Hickory, both 
in Caldwell County. At the latter place there also occurs red hema¬ 
tites and limonites in large deposits and of excellent quality. It is 
probable that further developments may prove the existence of a 
more extensive range, since similar granular magnetites have been 
found near Morgantown, almost in a line with the strike with the 
more northern beds. 

Another bed accompanies the limestone of McDowell county on 
both sides of the North Fork of the Catawba River; the ores are 
limonite sometimes also hematite mixed with magnetite. These 
limonite beds continue to the west of the Blue Ridge, where we find 
them again overlying the limestone in Henderson and Transylvania 
Counties. 

Several beds of limonite and occasionally hematite of good quality, 
exist in several localities of Buncouqbe county, so at Ore Mountain, 
two miles south west of Swaiinanoa Gap, and also 4—5 miles west of 
Ashville. 

The magnetites and hematites west of the Blue Ridge deserve the 
highest attention, as they are not only of very superior quality, but 
also found in inexhaustible quantities. The most northern bed of 
magnetites is found in Ashe County at the North Fork of New River, 
near Hilton Creek. The ore is granular and talcose, in its general 
character almost identical with the ores of the King’s Mountain 
range, being granular magnetites of somewhat slaty structure from 


25 


the intermixture of small quantities of talc. The ores have been 
worked in bloomeries and have yielded a good quality of iron. 

A very superior ore occurs at Cook’s Gap in Watauga County. It 
consists of an almost pure stratified red hematite with octahedral 
crystals of magnetite disseminated through the mass. It is associated 
with limonite. It is an ore worthy of fuller investigation. 

A number of iron ore beds are found in Mitchell County; the most 
valuable deposits are about one and a half miles south of Cranberry, 
near the Tennessee line. The ore beds have not been sufficiently ex¬ 
plored to show their geological character and size, but they appear 
to be inclosed between hornblende slates and a peculiar micaceous 
slate. 

The size of the ore beds must be enormous; judging from the out¬ 
crops it may have a width of 300—400 yards, and extends for more 
than half a mile; the whole side of the hill is covered with large 
blocks of the finest quality of magnetite, which evidently exists there 
in inexhaustible quantities. 

The magnetite is often quite pure and polaric, coarse-grained, 
sometimes crystallized in octahedra, and associated with pyroxene 
and epidote. The pyroxene weathers into a brown ferruginous clay, 
in which are inclosed grains of magnetite. As these ores are soft 
and require little labor, they are the only ones worked and converted 
into blooms, at the works about two miles distant. The whole pro¬ 
duction is not over one ton of blooms a day. The finest quality is 
not touched. The analysis of a specimen representing about the 
average character of the ore, showed it to be entirely free from sul¬ 
phur and phosphorus, and containing *65 per cent, of iron. 

There are several promising outcrops of magnetic ore beds in 
Mitchell County, but most of the other ores are menaccanite, which 
occurs at the following localities: at Crab Orchard, Cane Creek and 
Flat Rock. 

In Madison County, on the east Fork of the Big Laurel, a large 
ourcrop of slaty fine grained granular magnetites, of apparently very 
good quality occurs, also a highly titaniferous menaccanite, containing 
nearly 38 per cent, of titantic acid. A bed # of specular iron exists at 
Jewell Hill. 

Other beds of magnetic ores in the same county occur in hornblende 
slates near Fines Creek in Haywood, and in garnetiferous micaschist 
at several points in Macon County. 

I have yet to mention the immense beds of limonite or brown hem- 


26 


•atite, which occur in several localities in Cherokee County, associated 
with the limestone or marble and talc, one of which is worked, about 
one mile from Murphy. 

The ore is of very fine quality, compact, also porous and fibrous, 
in some places ochreous; the quantity is inexhaustible, and beyond 
doubt the region where these deposits exists will sooner or later 
become a large iron manufacturing district. 

Coal. The great ^abundance of iron ores in North Carolina re¬ 
quires for their reduction a large amount of fuel, and the question of 
its supply has for a time given a great deal of anxiety to those who 
are most largely interested in the manufacture of iron, as under the 
present system of forest destruction, instead of cultivation, the manu¬ 
facture of charcoal iron must eventually be abandoned, although this 
may not take place for hundreds of years yet to come. It is there¬ 
fore of the greatest importance that North Carolina contains several 
kinds of coal, some of which are of excellent quality, and in the im¬ 
mediate neighborhood or within a short distance only of the most 
valuable iron ore deposits. 

I have already stated that the North Carolina coal does not belong 
to the so-called carboniferous period, but to the triassic; it is of the 
same age as the coal near Richmond, Va. 

In Chatham and Moore Counties is the south-eastern extension? 
generally called the Deep River Coal Field; in Rockingham and 
Stokes Counties the north-western of the same beds, or tho Dan River 
Coal Field. The centre is washed away. 

From the investigations of Prof. Emmons and Admiral Wilkes, we 
learn that the Deep River coal is of the best quality, well adapted for 
the manufacture of iron and gas, and can be obtained in inexhausti¬ 
ble quantities. 

The area underlaid by coal is over forty square miles, containing 
over 6,000,000 tons of coal to each square mile. The coal measures 
consist of strata of slates, calcareous shales, alternating with beds of 
argillaceous carbonate of iron and seams of coal, all inclosed between 
two beds of red sandstone^ 

Five seams of coal have been observed; the upper consists of a 
bed of six and a half feet in thickness, separated by a seam of black 
band. Near the outcrop it is somewhat contaminated with sulphur, 
which diminishes, however, as the depth increases. There are sev¬ 
eral varieties of coal, the highly bituminous and semi-bituminous ; 


27 


n«ar a trapdyke it has lost almost the whole of its volatile matter 
and has become an anthracite. According to an analysis of coal from 
the deep pit at Egypt, by Dr. Jackson, it contains: 

Fixed Carbon = 63*6 
Vol. Matter = 34*8 
Ash = 1*0 

An analysis of Egypt coal, which I have lately made, gave: 

Moisture = 0*84 
Vol. Matter = 25*75 
Fixed Carbon = 63*27 
Ash = 10*14 


100.00 per cent. 

It contained 1*35 per cent, of sulphur. 

An analysis of coal from the Gulf gave me : 

Moisture = 1*16 
Yol. Matter = 21*90 
Fixed Carbon — 70*48 
Ash == 6*46 

100.00 per cent. 

-Sulphur only 1*02 per cent. 

All these analyses show the great value of the Deep River coal. 
The Dan River coal field embraces an area of over thirty square 
miles ; it has hardly been developed. Small quantities have been 
mined near Madison, Rockingham County, which were used by the 
blacksmith in the neighborhood ; and the North Carolina Centre 
Iron and Manufacturing Co., of this city, has made a few trial pits 
W’hich have proved the existence of five beds of coal, although it is 
probable that there are others besides. 

The coals which I have examined from two of the seams near the 
■outcrop gave respectively, 11*44—13*56 per cent of ash, 75*96 and 
76*56 per cent, of fixed carbon and about 12 per cent, of volatile matter. 
These results are very encouraging. The Dan River coal field being the 
north-west continuation of the Deep River, has probably the same 
seams, and, where the coal is undisturbed, the same quality of coal. 
These coal fields are not only of general value, but, when it is re¬ 
membered that they lie in close proximity to some of the largest and 
best iron beds in the State, their importance can then be fully ap¬ 
preciated. 

Diamond and Graphite. North Carolina possesses carbon, not 




only in the form of several varieties of coal, but also in its two other 
modifications, as diamond and graphite. 

Both occur in the old gneissoid rocks, the graphite in beds inter- 
stratified with the micaschist or gneiss ; the diamond in the debris of 
such rocks, associated with gold, zircon, garnet, monazite and other 
minerals. 

It is very remarkable that these two minerals are found in strata 
of the same age ; and this fact reminds me of an analogous one, which 
may throw some light on their origin, viz., in producing the adaman¬ 
tine boron we always obtain the graphitic form at the same time. 

Diamond has not been observed in North Carolina in any more 
recent strata, and in the itacolumite regions no diamonds have ever 
been found, as in Brazil; from which it appears that the itacolumite 
of Brazil is either simply a quartzose micaslate of similar age with 
the North Carolina gneissoid rocks, or that, if it is cotemporary with 
the North Carolina itacolumite, the diamonds were not produced in 
the same but came from older rocks, and were re-deposited with the 
sands resulting from their reduction to powder and are now found im¬ 
bedded in the same, their hardness having preventing their destruc¬ 
tion. Seven or eight diamonds have thus far been found. They 
occur distributed over a wide area of surface in the counties of Burke, 
Rutherford, Lincoln, Mecklenburg and Franklin, and I have no 
doubt, if a regular search would be made for them, they would be 
found more frequently. Some of the stones were fine crystals of 
first water ; their weight was from one half karat to about two karats. 

Graphite, so much in demand now for the manufacture of crucibles 
for melting steel and other metals, for lead pencils, as an anti-friction 
agent, for stove blacking, paint, &c., is found in numerous localities 
in the State. 

The largest beds known since nearly half a century occur a few 
miles west of Raleigh in Wake County. There appear to be two 
belts about half a mile apart; the beds contain several seams of 
greater purity from six to eighteen inches in width. The beds are 
known to extend for a distance of eighteen or twenty miles. 

It has been explored seven miles north-west of Raleigh, and a shaft 
has been sunk to a depth of one hundred feet. It is mostly mixed 
with fine grit and is rather slaty, and would require mechanical 
means for the separation of the impurities. Other beds of graphite, 
but not so extensive, are found in Lincoln, Caldwell, near Hickory, 
and in Burke Counties near Morgantown. None of them are developed- 


29 


The best quality which I have seen came from Alexander County, 
three miles from Taylor’s, and from Cane Creek in Person County. 

Sulphur is not found in North Carolina, except occasionally in 
small crystals, in cavities of quartz, resulting from the decomposition 
of pyrite. A large supply of sulphur ores will be furnished when the 
mines of the State are worked to a greater depth. One large vein of 
pure iron pyrites occurs in Gaston County. Most of the other veins 
will furnish in addition gold and copper. 

Corundum. —Corundum, which, on account of its hardness, is so 
much sought for as a cutting and polishing material for hard sub¬ 
stances, has been found, in a state of great purity and abundance, at 
several places in the neighborhood of Franklin, in Macon County, in 
connection with granites and chrysolite rocks. 

It is mostly greyish or brownish, but sometimes it assumes a beau¬ 
tiful sapphire blue and ruby color. It is to be regretted that the blue 
has not yet been found in pieces large enough to be cut for gems, and 
that the ruby has not the requisite trasparency. A large boulder of 
dark blue corundum was found, many years ago, near the French 
Broad River, in Madison County. It has lately been observed on the 
Burnsville Road, 19 miles from Ashville. In small quantities it is 
found at Crowder’s and Clubb Mountains, Gaston County. 

The granular corundrum or emery is associated with the magnetites 
of the great titaniferous iron range in Guilford County. 

Rutile .—Titanic acid, in the form of rutile, used in the arts to give 
a peculiar color to artificial teeth, is found in considerable quantity at 
Crowder’s and Clubb Mountains, in Gaston County; also at several 
localities in Mecklenburg and Mitchell Counties. 

Mica , Feldspar , Kaoline , Pyrophyllite .—Hundreds of years ago, 
long before the Indians occupied the territory of North Carolina, 
many excavations were made in the numerous large coarse-grained 
granite beds of Mitchell, Yancey, Cleveland and other Counties. In 
the year 1867 a number of these old mines have been taken up again, 
and now mining, on a somewhat extensive scale, is going on, and a 
great portion of the mica used in the arts for stoves, lamp-shades, 
window-panes, etc., comes from Mitchell and Yancey Counties, North 
Carolina. The mica has mostly a slightly brownish color ; it occurs, 
irregularly distributed, through the granite, in rounded pieces, some 
of them weighing several hundred pounds. It is then split and cut 


* 


30 


into marketable shapes, which, according to size, will sell from $1 — 
$10 per pound. 

The same localities furnish a very fine quality of orthoclase or pot¬ 
ash feldspar, used for glazing porcelain and for artificial teeth. 

At some of the mines in Mitchell County the orthoclase is almost 
completely decomposed, and leaves frequently a snow-white kaoline 
or porcelain clay. It is found at several other localities, as in Lincoln, 
Burke and Macon Counties. 

In the region of the Deep River, in Chatham and Moore Counties,, 
very extensive beds of pyrophyllite slate have been worked for a 
long time. 

It is sometimes called agalmatolite, from the fact that from a dense- 
variety of the same rock the Chinese cut and carve their little images, 
idols and toys. The North Carolina mineral, being entirely free from 
grit, is largely used as an antifriction material, also for the lining of 
furnaces, slate-pencils, in the manufacture of wall-paper, as a cos¬ 
metic, and for other purposes. Other, though less extensive, beds have 
been found in Montgomery and Gaston Counties. 

Serpentine, Talc .—Only one locality has come to my notice from 
where a serpentines could be obtained fit for ornamental purposes. It 
has a dark greenish-black color, contains very small seams of a green¬ 
ish chrysolite, with silky lustre, and acquires a good polish. Found 
in large quantities 1J mile below Patterson, in Caldwell County. 

The serpentine found in the chrysolite beds west of the Blue Ridge 
are of no value. 

The most beautiful white, or greenish-white massive, or finely crys¬ 
tallized talc is found, in inexhaustible beds, in many places in Chero¬ 
kee County. 

It is used for similar purposes as the slaty pyrophyllite of Chatham 
and Moore Counties. Massive and schistose talc, or soapstone, suit¬ 
able for fire-places, mantle-pieces, stove-linings, etc., is found in many 
localities in the State. 

Barytes .—This material, when quite white much used as a paint, 
and more generally for the adulteration of 6k white lead," is found in 
abundance and excellent quality at several localities. A coarsely 
granular variety, white, like marble, is found in Union County ; 
another similar one, massive and granular, in a vein from 7 to 8 feet 
in thickness, in Gaston County, at Crowder’s Mountain ; and a grey¬ 
ish-white laminated variety, at the Latta mine, near Hillsboro’, in 


* 


31 


Orange County. West of the Blue Ridge it is found, in white granu¬ 
lar masses, at Chandlers’, nine miles below Marshall, in Madison 
County. 

Alum and Copperas .—Many of the gneissoid slates of Cleveland? 
Rutherford and other Counties contain large quantities of pyrite finely 
disseminated through them, which, by oxidation, or weathering, pro¬ 
duces copperas and alum, both of which were therefrom manufactured 
on a large scale during the war. 

\ 

Marble .—Only in one or two localities in the limestones of Stokes 
and Catawba Counties, a fine-grained variety is found, which would 
be useful for ornamental purposes if the quantities were not too lim¬ 
ited. West of the Blue Ridge, however, in Cherokee and Macon 
Counties, it is found in large beds, of the finest qualities. There is 
not only the fine-grained white, resembling that of Carrara, but also 
the greyish-veined marble, like the Italian, and a most beautiful vari¬ 
ety of a fine pink hue. 

The limits of this paper are already far beyond my original expec¬ 
tations ; and still I might add many more details which would be of 
interest. In as concise a form as possible, I have indicated and de¬ 
scribed the principal valuable minerals in the State, and the localities 
where they occur. I have dwelt rather more fully upon gold, copper, 
iron and coal, because of their greater importance, especially the two 
latter, which I believe will prove a source of immense wealth to the 
State. 

My various visits to North Carolina, and more particularly the op¬ 
portunities afforded me for observations during my trip there last 
summer, have enabled me to collect many facts and much data relative 
to the various mines and mining districts, which doubtless would be 
of interest, but which want of space compels me to omit for the pre¬ 
sent. I hope, however, that at some future day it will again be my 
privilege to present the Franklin Institute with further observations 
on this interesting subject. 

Philadelphia, December, 1871. 
























































































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